Police this month fielded a complaint from a Norwalk woman who said she’d been bit at Spencer’s Run by a dog whose owner—a New Canaan man—failed to show sufficient concern.
It happened on the evening of April 7 (a Friday) at the Waveny dog park, according to a police report obtained by NewCanaanite.com through a Freedom of Information request.
According to a report from the head of the Animal Control section, Officer Allyson Halm, at about 5:30 p.m. the woman had been throwing a ball to her dog “when a white shepherd or husky-type dog came over to them and the two dogs began to fight.”
The woman started yelling and tried to break up the scrap, and told Halm that “the other dog’s owner was far away and didn’t seem to know what was going on,” the report said.
Soon, the man—a Spring Water Lane resident—made his way over to secure his dog, and the woman instructed him to leave the park, as his dog had bitten her, the report said.
Yet, according to the woman, “the male was not responding,” the report said. She grew increasingly upset and threatened to phone police, at which time another man—“Mike”—entered the dog run, spoke to each of the dog owners and the offending man left, it said.
The matter ended there, until Monday, when the woman phoned police.
Asked why she waited until then the woman “indicated that she did not realize that the skin on her right leg had been broken until she had gotten home and that she was more upset that the owner of the dog was not watching his dog while in the park and that he made no attempt to help her,” Halm wrote in the report.
Halm identified the man through his dog park registration—the rabies vaccinations on both of his beasts are up-to-date—and contacted him.
The man confirmed with police that he had been at the park on Friday and that he was “aware of the incident but did not see it,” according to the report.
When he went to help the woman, the man said, she was “rude, telling him that his dog bit her and that he needed to leave the park or she would call the police,” the report said.
The man wanted to offer his help and make sure the woman was all right but she kept yelling at him, it said.
Soon, Mike arrived and the man left, he told police.
The man “further indicated that he was in the park when [the woman] came in and that her dog attacked his dog,” the report said.
When Halm reminded the man that he did not see what happened, he said “that he saw the dogs together and didn’t pay attention because he thought they were playing and that it turned into a fight.”
His dog is required to undergo a 14-day quarantine, as per state law. No tickets were issued.